San Joaquin County Biographies
This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
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C. W. FORBES.
Prominent among the most highly-esteemed citizens of Manteca may well be
numbered C. W. Forbes, who has been a popular resident of the live town since
October, 1918, having there, with M. A. Forbes, built up the extensive
corporation called the Manteca Telephone and Telegraph Company. Mr. Forbes was
born on a farm in Wayne County, New York, in 1871, and as a boy enjoyed the
advantages of a good common-school education. When sixteen years of age he
entered the employ of the Bell Telephone Company of New York State, after which
he gradually worked up from line�man to be general manager of a private
telegraph and telephone company at Chicago.
In 1909 he went into Mexico, to the State of Sonora, where he pioneered
in the development of the Sonora Telephone Company, with their headquarters at
Hermosillo; and in this venture Mrs. Forbes was a partner throughout the nine
years required for expanding the extensive business; and during their stay there
they became intimately and pleasantly associated with prominent Mexican
families, including that of the present President Obregon. Before coming to
California, however, Mr. Forbes sold his entire interest, on account of the
unsettled state of affairs there.
In 1916 he reached the Golden State, and since that time he has built up
a business consisting of five hundred and thirty phones within a radius of three
miles from Manteca to a territory fully seven miles in length with a steady
growth from six suburban lines in 1918 to twenty-two lines in 1922, while the
long-distance service has more than tripled in this period. From an investment
of $6,000, the volume of business has so increased as to call for an investment
of some $40,000�which speaks for itself.
Mr. Forbes is a live wire in the Chamber of Commerce, and equally so in
the newly-organized Lions Club, of which he is chairman of the executive
committee. He is also a most welcome member of the Masonic lodges.
History of San Joaquin County, California � Los Angeles, Historic Record Co.,
1923
p 1573
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler.